The aim of the CEPEJ is to contribute to improving the quality of justice and the efficiency of its functioning in the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe.

Editorial

Stéphane Leyenberger, Secretary of the CEPEJ

The work accomplished by CEPEJ on the evaluation of European judicial systems enjoys wide recognition today and is used in an increasing number of Council of Europe member states as a guide to public justice policies. We hope that with the invaluable support of the national correspondents, the members of the Working Group on the Evaluation of Judicial Systems and the scientific experts, the 2012 edition of the report, due in September 2012, will meet these expectations.

In parallel to this process of analysing the operation of judicial systems, CEPEJ is also interested in how their operation is perceived by the beneficiaries: the users (professionals and citizens seeking justice) and, ultimately, the community. This information, which draws on more subjective elements, is necessary to supplement the factual information and ensure that due account is taken of user’s expectations in the organisation and reform of judicial systems. A handbook has accordingly been produced, as part of the work of the Working Group on the Quality of Justice, to enable courts to conduct user satisfaction surveys, together with a training programme in which CEPEJ experts are at the disposal of interested courts to train their staff and help them to organise satisfaction surveys and analyse the results.

In setting up this training programme, CEPEJ members and experts have chosen to leave the meeting rooms of the Palais de l’Europe and reach out to judicial practitioners, who are the main beneficiaries of our Commission’s work. This project is actually not the only one falling within this new area of work. First, there is the CEPEJ “Roadshow”, which provides an opportunity for member states to organise information and exchange sessions for a wide audience of professionals based on the activities of CEPEJ. Secondly, a training programme in the use of CEPEJ’s SATURN tools for improving judicial time management is available to interested courts.

CEPEJ intends in this way to provide a better understanding and clearer explanation of its tools for improving the efficiency and quality of justice and to ascertain the views of professionals on the relevance of those tools, in order to build on them and make them more directly relevant in the day-to-day work of the courts. True to its line of action, it intends to remain an innovative body anchored in the day-to-day reality of judicial systems.

Stéphane Leyenberger
Secretary of the CEPEJ

File: Measuring the quality of justice: ascertainment of users’ expectations

 
Judicial systems have certain privileged audiences, such as their regular users in a professional capacity, or stakeholders, the academics studying their functioning or commenting on the decisions delivered, or their agents in person when reflecting on their own practices.

Parties to proceedings are occasional users, and set foot inside the law courts on rare occasions in their lives. Capturing the essence of their experience through opinion polls is a chancy undertaking, even if the sampling is representative of a given society. Rather, the representations of justice in a country are revealed by such surveys.

In fact it is not easy to record the opinions of parties who have effective experience to disclose. To do so, the Working group on Quality of Justice (GT-QUAL) has developed a standard instrument for measuring the satisfaction of real court users, in the form of a questionnaire administered “on leaving the hearing”, designed in such a way as to be usable in the 47 Council of Europe member states: the Handbook for conducting satisfaction surveys aimed at court users (CEPEJ Studies No. 14), adopted in September 2010.

In a few months, it has already undergone the ordeal by fire four times in three different countries: the judicial districts of Angoulême (France), Turin and Catania (Italy) have conducted their own satisfaction surveys on the basis of the questionnaire prepared by the CEPEJ. In the Netherlands, it has been conducted at national level. In the first two cases, it was a matter of questioning the users of a court of first instance, in the last those of a court of appeal.

While the complete results are still being analysed, the first inferences to be drawn are these:

- The tool works, and its practical use has proved its suitability;
- The survey proceeds all the more satisfactorily when users are supported in their effort of participation: if staff members of the court registries, judicial service cadets (trainee magistrates) or law, sociology or political science students are present to complete the questionnaire with justice users, participation is greater and the replies gain in quality;
- One original feature of this tool, the distinction between users’ level of satisfaction for a given criterion and the importance attached to that criterion, is well understood by the respondents.
- This distinction allows rapid determination of the fields where action is necessary, ie those for which the level of satisfaction is low whereas the degree of importance is high.
- Use of the questionnaire uncovers the shortcomings of the services offered to persons before the courts: a given service, believed to meet expectations, actually receives poor marks and should be improved.

These first successful experiments enable the CEPEJ to make available to the member states a tool which has the approval of its experts, besides being tested in practice. For greater convenience in its use, the CEPEJ offers practical help to interested courts, for example by offering them the assistance of an expert during the conduct of the survey, whether for implementation or for the subsequent analysis.

File: Court users satisfaction surveys; first experiences in France, Italy and in the Netherlands

Ongoing activities: what's new?

Evaluation of judicial systems

Timeframes of proceedings

The Sterring group of the SATURN Centre for judicial time management (CEPEJ-SATURN), in co-operation with the Network of Pilot courts, pursues the setting up of a European Observatory of judicial timeframes, with a qualitative and quantitative double-approach. A training programme for the courts has been set up for the courts wishing to be supported in the implementation of the measures developed by the CEPEJ to improve judicial time management; experts from the CEPEJ are at the disposal of the voluntary courts to work with them in this direction, on the basis of a handbook of methodology set up by the SATURN Centre. The interested courts are invited to contact the CEPEJ Secretariat: Stephane.Leyenberger@coe.int.

Furthermore, the SATURN Centre expects to refine the number of civil, criminal and administrative cases which could be subject to a regular follow-up in order to measure and understand timeframes of proceedings for these cases, considered in an homogeneous manner in the different member States.

More information

Quality of Justice

The working group on quality of justice (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL) proposes to voluntary courts a training programme for the organisation of court users satisfaction surveys, on the basis of a methodological handbook adopted last year. CEPEJ experts may accompany voluntary courts for this purpose. The interested courts are invited to contact the CEPEJ Secretariat: Stephane.Leyenberger@coe.int.

Work is also underway, in co-operation with the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL and the Groupe de pilotage of the SATURN Centre, to define justice quality indicators.

Furthermore, the working group is preparing guidelines on the main principles which should preside the reorganisation of judicial maps.

More information...

Network of Pilot courts

The plenary meeting of the Network of pilot courts took place in Strasbourg, on 22 September 2011. The Group provided its expertise in the field of the CEPEJ's work already underway for the organisation of satisfaction surveys in courts, the definition of common case categories which might be subject to a specific study in the field of length of procedure and identification of quality indicators of the functioning of the courts.

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European Day of Justice

The main event of the 9th edition of the European Day of Justice took place in the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Toulouse (France) in presence of representatives of the Council of Europe and of the European Commission. About fifteen countries participated to the celebration of the day through the organisation of events aimed at improving the knowledge of citizens of the functioning of their judicial systems. The events which do not figure on the CEPEJ Website may be transmitted to Annette.Sattel@coe.int. Furthermore, the member States willing to introduce their application for the celebration of the main event in 2012, should send their draft application to this address before 31 January 2012.

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Crystal Scales of Justice

The call for applications to participate in the 6th edition of the Crystal Scales of Justice will be launched in March 2012.

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2010 CEPEJ activity report

The CEPEJ Vice-President, Georg Stawa, presented the 2010 CEPEJ activity report to the Committee of Ministers. He has underlined working prospects for the coming months. The Committee of Ministers widely congratulated the CEPEJ for its works which are oriented towards concrete results in the fields of independence and efficiency of justice.

2010 CEPEJ activity report

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